Stop the Press: This blogger was wrong!

Most esteemed readers:

I was wrong. I admit it and apologize. Let me explain. About 2 months ago I reported about a puzzle app called Doodle Nums. I played this app for about 40 minutes and determined that it was impossible to solve.

One of my astute 'followers' (no I do not feel like a religious guru) sent me an email with a screen shot that proves she solved Doodle Nums. Her name is Kara Sheftel. And today, I yield to her superior puzzle solving prowess. Applause!

SpiderJack: free iphone ipad puzzle app

SpiderJack is similar to Angry Birds. The object is to get your spider to its web to eat the fly. Along the way, try to collect some stars. Your spider hangs by its thread. Let it swing (to collect the starts) and then swipe cut the thread so it lands at the web.

I'm not a fan of Angry Birds, so, unfortunately, I'm not a fan of SpiderJack. However, if you like Angry Birds, then definitely try SpiderJack

OpenValve: free iphone ipad puzzle app

OpenValve is a great free iphone ipad puzzle app. The object is to rotate each of the pipe sections to get the water to the target without spilling. Very similar to a previous game I reviewed: Plumber Game. Plumber game has 50 puzzle levels. OpenValve has 250 levels. I have don 59 of the 250 levels. This is a puzzle that I feel that I must solve all the levels!

17x17x17 Cube Puzzle: now a Guiness World Record

February 12th of this year, Oskar van Deventer presented his 17x17x17 Cube puzzle at the New York Puzzle Party Symposium. The Guiness Book of World Records has now acknowledged this officially as a world record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz43QuMyEzM

I was extremely happy and honored that Oskar asked me to write a 'witness letter' to the Guiness people. And now it's official!

NumberGame: free iphone ipad puzzle app

Object: get the numbers in the correct order. This is done by rotating 4 pieces at a time. The cursor on the left allows you to select which 4 pieces will rotate.

Great puzzle app? Certainly not. But I did play it a few times. Getting the top 2 rows is simple. The bottom 2 rows can be difficult.

I first saw this puzzle app on a Nokia phone about 10 years ago.

Kunundrum: free iphone ipad puzzle app

The object of Kunundrum is to get the colored balls to the colored targets. This is a tilt maze where each ball will travel as far as it can. There are arrows which can change the trajectory. There are colored portals that transfer only that same colored ball. Oh yes, there are gates which can be opened and closed.

We've seen all of these features in similar games: Quell and Blaxx come to mind. (See my reviews of those.)

The first 20 levels are free. Then it's $1.99 for another 80 or 90 puzzles. I'm not sure. But right now I'm stuck on level 97.

Kunundrum is definitely the right mixture of easy, medium & hard puzzles. Is this one of the best fun puzzle apps of the year? Quite possibly.

Blockado Deep Sea: iphone ipad puzzle app

Blockado Deep Sea continues the original Rush Hour theme of getting your man out of the parking lot. Blockado Deep Sea is a continuation of the Blockado family of puzzles: Blockado Jungle, Blockado Desert and Blockado Mountain.

All of these puzzles are good! On some puzzles, the object is to get multiple treasure chests out of multiple exits. Some pieces have springs, magnets. Others are rope/coils and move like a snake.

Blockado Deep Sea has a good mixture of easy, medium and difficult puzzles. Importantly, there is just the right number of puzzle levels - so you can get a sense of accomplishment and say: I did them all!

Blockado Mountain: iphone ipad puzzle app

Blockado Mountain is in line with Blockado Jungle and Blockado Desert. All are based on Thinkfun's Rushhour.

Blockado Mountain has a good mix of easy, medium and hard puzzles. It improves on Rush Hour in that there are innovative elements. Moving a piece under a floating diamond makes other squares in the grid form blocking columns. There are springs, magnets and coiled pieces that can snake around.

Another nice feature: Blockado Mountain has the right number of puzzles: not a zillion! Excellent value for the price.

Spindoku: free iphone ipad puzzle app

Does the world need another version of Sudoku? Apparently so. Richard Burton made this one. Tap on each of the spinners to rotate those 4 numbers until the entire grid is the solution to a sudoku puzzle. The easy levels have fewer spinners. The harder levels have more spinners.

Fastest Robot to solve Rubik's Cube

Seems like every couple of months, a new robot breaks the record for solving Rubik's Cube. This one is lightning fast.

Bobberz: free iphone ipad puzzle app

Bobberz is similar to many other free puzzle apps. Try to get 3 adjacent squares or circles together to eliminate them. Swap a blue square with a red square by tapping on them. Look at the image on the left. If the orange bar gets too high, try to lower it by eliminating orange squares and circles.

Fun: iphone ipad puzzle app

Read the instructions in the image above. This puzzle app is similar to Floodit and several others. The object is to get all the gears 1 color. When 2 gears are connected by a pipe then the second gear will be absorbed by the first gear's color and will start a chain reaction.

Definitely worth a download, especially because it's free. Also: some mathematician out there should investigate this and figure out for any given setup, which is the best color to aim for and what the minimum number of moves is.

When the puzzle is solved, watch the graphics!

Designed by Jose Verela

Logix Domino: free iphone ipad ipod touch puzzle app

Logix Domino is from the prolific and high-quality puzzle app creator Robert Cutler

The object: you are given a grid of numbers, or pips. Place the dominos at the bottom on the grid to match them.

I first saw this type of puzzle in the Dell Math & Logic puzzle magazine, maybe 20 years ago. They're fun!

In Logix Domino, the user interface is quite good.

JiGaZo - great price

I just bought a copy of JiGaZo at Amazon.com by a seller called Blessedbybooks for $7.88.

JiGaZo is a totally cool mosaic jigsaw puzzle to create images of anything.

Blluby Arcade: free iphone ipad puzzle app

I downloaded Blluby Arcade and tried to figure out the rules. The rules are not posted on the app itself. However, I went to the company's webpage: http://site.crazyminds.net/ and still am lost about the objective.

Can you make sense of this? "BLLUBY Arcade is a FREE puzzle game in an arcade style. It uses the mechanics of the BLLUBY Game - the same rules of how can you walking above the colored cubes and how can you turn them in the blue color.

But now, you need to make rolls, of at least 4 cubes, to destroy and eliminate them of the game. If all the 6 columns and 7 lines contains cubes, you lost.

Each move a new cube falls from the top, take care you do not be locked by dead cubes( blue cubes ). - "Remember of the rules! BLLUBY Game rules!"

BLLUBY Arcade has 3 game modes, Arcade, Portals and Vegas. Each game mode has a new and totally diferente challenge..."

Blocks Maze: free ipad iphone puzzle app

Move the small red block into the large red block and then exit the maze. I really want to like this puzzle app, however, the arrow key controls just don't work very well. There are 5 free levels. I'm keeping this puzzle app on my device in the hopes that the controls will be fixed.

Quares: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

Quares is a free puzzle app for the iphone, ipad and ipod touch. Find 4 corners of the same color within the grid and score points. The bigger the rectangle, the more points. You are being timed! Every time you tap a square, you gain time.

We've seen puzzles identical to this. Still, it's fun! So download it!

Power Grid: free puzzle app for ipad, iphone, ipod touch

Power Grid comes from PufferFish Games Ltd. Each Power Grid Circle has a number which means that it is connected that many times to other circles. Grid sizes are 7x7 and 9x9. The full version has 11x11.

Years ago, I bought a book from Nikoli Press in Japan that has these puzzles. Without a doubt, it's annoying to have to erase lines, so the touch screen makes this more fun.

WordSeven: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad, ipod touch

Word Seven is a point-scoring puzzle. Spell words from the list of letters. The longer the word, the more points. All letters are colored - use different colors for your word to score more points.

On Tilt: free iphone ipad puzzle app

The objective of On Tilt is to get your yellow smiley onto the star. You do this by tilting your device in various directions.

We've seen lots of tilt mazes where all the pieces travel until they hit a wall. This one is okay, however, I would prefer that the user be able to swipe the direction instead of tilting. For example, if you're hold the device upward, that automatically dictates the first move, which potentially could lead to a dead end.

Peter Livesy, the developer, told me that he intends to add the swipe feature soon. If you like On Tilt, you will also like: Blockhouse and Boxat.

Blockado Desert: free iphone ipad puzzle app until Tuesday

This summer I played all the levels of Blockado Desert. It's free until this Tuesday. I highly recommend the entire Blocado series: Blockado Jungle, Blockado Desert, Blockado Mountain and very soon to be released: Blockado Deep Sea.

Rubik's Furniture

Click here to see more Rubik's Cube Furniture ideas.

Rotatoland: free iphone ipad puzzle app

We've seen numerous puzzle apps like Rotatoland. The object is to arrange the tiles in the correct numerical order by sliding the rows and columns.

However, in the second level of puzzles, tapping on one tile rotates the surrounding tiles in a clockwise order. That's easy to imagine if the tile is in the middle. Can you figure out what happens when a tile on the edge is tapped. This level is HARD!

Rotatoland is not the best free puzzle app, but it's darn good.

Steve Jobs, Puzzler

Steve Jobs will be remembered for many things. I doubt that he will be remembered as a Puzzler. His invention of the ipod touch, the iphone and the ipad led the invention of the App Store. The App Store opened the creativity of thousands of puzzlers around the world to bring their ideas to everybody.

Every week, there are approximately 150 new puzzle apps released on the app store. Most are not interesting. However, a few are always quite good. Without the App Store......it would not have happened.

Puzzles in the News: The New York Times

The New York Times has a Wordplay blog. Nice little blurb about Rubik's Cube.

Plumber Game: free iphone, ipad, ipod touch puzzle app

Plumber Game consists of 50 puzzle levels. The object is to connect the water source to the hydrant by rotating each of the straight and curvy pipes. I have solved all 50 levels. I thought I would do 5 or 6 levels, but I couldn't stop! It took about 45 minutes to complete them all. Is Plumber Game one of the best free puzzles apps? No. But it's definitely fun.

Sh!ft: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad, ipod touch

Sh!ft is a puzzle where you have a time limit and must score as many points as possible. To score points, 3 or more eggs must line up vertically, horizontally or diagonally. You may shift entire baskets to an empty space. Also, within each basket, eggs can be moved from corner to corner.

Sh!ft has a nice user interface and is a good free puzzle app.

IQ Pyramid: free puzzle app for ipad, iphone, ipod touch

I have the physical version of this puzzle. Who knew that this puzzle could be solved 100 different ways? For each level 2 or 3 pieces have already been set into the frame. Grab the other pieces, rotate them and fill up the area.

Decoded: free iphone ipad puzzle app game

The object of Decoded is to convert the 4-digit number in the middle into binary. Convert each digit - one at a time. Strictly speaking, this is not a puzzle app, it's an exercise in thinking quickly. Take too much time and you lose!

Doodle Nums: free puzzle app for ipad, iphone, ipod touch

Doodle Nums is not really a puzzle, although there is a puzzle aspect to it. The object is to clear the board by tapping on pairs of numbers that are either identical or that add up to 10.

The tapped numbers must be adjacent with 2 exceptions. 1: if there is no number in between them, but they are spaced apart vertically or horizontally, that's okay. 2: The last number in a row matches the first number in the next row.

There is no scoring system. I believe that it is impossible to ever clear the board.

If you are able to clear the board, send me an image, and I'll send you a prize.

Boost 2 free iphone ipad game

Boost 2 Lite is the free version. The object is to tilt your device to stay on the white road. If your path turns blue, that's a warning that a blue obstacle is fast approaching.

Drag Bomb free puzzle app for iphone, ipad, ipod touch

Drag Bomb is another version of peg solitaire. It's a free puzzle app with lots of levels. However, the graphics are dark. And considering there is a 'bomb' element, perhaps the designer should have done something with the pegs that get jumped; they just disappear.

Jeff Scanlan New Impossible Bottle

I recently acquired this Impossible Bottle puzzle from Jeff Scanlan, who is also a magician who specializes in 'sports magic'. In fact, last month I was at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles and saw 2 of his other Impossible Bottle puzzles.

Impossible Bottles make you think: how was this done. The only way to retrieve the object inside is to break the bottle.

Visit Jeff Scanlan's magic webpage.

Visit Jeff Scanlan's Impossible Bottle webpage.

Primo Kakuro: puzzle app for iphone ipad ipod touch

In 1989, I discovered a puzzle called Cross Sums in the Dell Math and Logic Puzzles magazine. I was hooked! Since then, I've done thousands of them. Every couple of years, I'll get a batch of 50 to solve. When I'm done, I always say: that's the last one I'll ever do. I'm tired of them.

Last week I got an email from Kroyan Armen about his puzzle app called Primo Kakuro. (I should mention here, that Cross Sums got renamed as Kakuro about 8 years ago.) Primo Kakuro and Primo Kakuro HD contain a lot of these puzzles. The 'Evil' puzzles are definitely hard enough that I struggled.

Primo Kakuro has some interesting features. Suppose you tap on an empty cell. Outside the grid, if you want to look, is displayed the numeric possibilities for the empty cells on the row and column.

There are other bells and whistles. Discover them yourself. Download the free version of Primo Kakuro and take it out for a spin. The full version costs $3.99. That's cheaper than the Dell Magazine that I mentioned before. Also, you'll get more puzzles for your money.

I've always felt that Cross Sums/Kakuros should be done via paper and pencil. In my old age, I realize it's not a bad thing to do on a computer screen.

Shapzzle: free ipad ipod touch iphone puzzle app

Shapzzle is very similar to Flood It! The game starts with your man represented by the top leftmost corner tile. Absorb the surrounding tiles bit by bit by changing your color to match that.

What's different: try to make one specific color be the last one to be absorbed.

The graphics are definitely cool.

The Impossible Bottle Man: Jeff Scanlan

The November issue of Games Magazine is on the newsstands now. Read my 4-page article on magician Jeff Scanlan and his Impossible Bottles. Games Magazine cannot be viewed online. It can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Target and miscellaneous magazine racks. Strangely, my local supermarket sells it. Unfortunately, they do not give me a discount.

Puzzle Brainiak: iphone ipad ipod touch free puzzle app

Puzzle Brainiak consists of 4 separate puzzles, none of them new.

Knight: switch all the blue pieces with all the orange pieces by only making knight-like moves. Grid sizes: 5x5, 7x7, 9x9

Slitherlink: Form 1 continuous path in the grid. Each number represents how many of the 4 sides - of that square - the link will pass through. I've never been a big fan of these, but the ones I solved previously had gigantic grid sizes. The starting grid size here is perfect: 4x4. They get bigger and change shapes to triangles and hexagons and honeycombs!

Untangle: lots of apps for this. The price is very nice here: free

Towers: I first saw this puzzle about 15 years ago. And I believe Popular Playthings has their own mechanical version of this called City Towers or something like that

NumDom: free iphone ipad ipod touch puzzle app

NumDom is a sudoku type puzzle app. You will notice colored numbers on the grid. The object is to have each number in each column and row. And each colored region must have each of the numbers.

Small grid sizes are 7x7. Large grid sizes are 9x9. This free puzzle app is very similar to Squiggly Sudoku. And I have to give a plug to websudoku.com For about $10 you can print or solve on your computer, about 1,000,000,000,000 other Squiggly Sudokus at all difficulty levels.

Tiny Invaders: iphone ipad puzzle app

Tiny Invaders is a puzzle app with a bizarre premise. You are an alien virus that must infect the world. There are many individual puzzles where the objective is to send your little viruses around twisted tracks to pick up key nutrients. To some extent, this is a shunting puzzle like having trains change directions by switching tracks. On some of the harder levels, your little viruses must avoid the white blood cells.

I've done about 3/4th of these puzzles. In terms of intellectual problem-solving, this is not very hard. In terms of play and fun, this is really kid stuff that is, frankly, amusing. The last person to be infected in this series of puzzles, is the president! Of course, all science fiction world calamities must be centered on the US - according to Hollywood. Isn't that what makes this country so great?

Amazing Tacoyaki: iphone ipad ipod touch puzzle app

Amazing Tacoyaki is a puzzle app very similar to Lights Out - a magnificent handheld electronic set of puzzles from Tiger Electronics.

We've seen many versions of Lights Out. Amazing Tacoyaki has grid sizes from 4x4 up to 8x8. Honestly, there's really nothing special about this puzzle app. Nevertheless, I thought I'd point out yet another version of Lights Out.

Geomelix: iphone ipad action puzzle

Geomelix is an action puzzle game. The object is to tap on the numbers in sequential order, starting with 1. Spin each Platonic solid to find the next number. Very slick graphics.

Geomelix can be played in 2 modes: play at your leisure or play with a time limit.

The first 3 platonic solids are free.

Keep the brain active, learn and play all types of puzzles all the time. Make it a lifetime habit and maybe, you'll ward off Alzheimer's.

Tripevo: great iphone ipad ipod touch puzzle app

Tripevo is a great, fun, terrific puzzle app. It is hard to describe the objective. You are given tiles, one by one, to place anywhere on the board. As soon as the board if filled, you lose.

If 3 tiles in a row are the same, they turn into 1 tile of the next level. Altogether there are 14 level tiles, and I have gotten to the 14th level tile after a dozen attempts.

Also, there are 'negative' tiles, which I semi-understand. I've played the game about 20 times and did pay for the full version. Tripevo is a deep, complicated, fun puzzle app. You will not truly understand it unless you actually play it a few times. Do so! It is worth your time.

I have 1 minor problem with this puzzle.....too difficult to explain unless you've played it. This app is worthy of a fan club.

The CIA is looking for puzzlers!

Fellow Puzzlers,

believe it or not, the CIA is looking for puzzlers. That means you.

Click on the link to see 2 types of puzzles and then 10 reasons why you should join the CIA. I'm not telling you it's gonna 'be all that you can be.' (I think that's the army.)

Special thanks to our resident mole (puzzle spy chief and janitor) for the scoop.

Escape: The Room iphone ipad

Escape: The Room from Moco Games is very simple. Look at the 4 walls for clues to open the safe which contains the key to the door. Similar to Myst. The graphics are a bit primitive, but that's okay. The game-play and puzzles are clever and fun. Escape: The Room is a free app. You might be frustrated at first.....stick with it!

Quaz-X: iphone, ipad, ipod touch puzzle app

I looked at level 1 of Quaz-X and thought: Oh no, another one of these puzzle apps where I have to slide the vertical columns and horizontal rows to interchange the pieces to the correct positions. So I solved the first few levels easily.

Then things got more interesting. The gray circles with outer spokes are interesting. Look at the image above. If the top row slides to the right one notch, then gray circle will stay in place and the new configuration will be blue triangle, red triangle, green circle.

Notice the spokes on the corner circles: Suppose the left column moves up......the entire outer perimeter will shift in a clockwise direction.

I have solved 15 of the 16 levels. #16 is very difficult. It is similar to the mechanical puzzle Hungarian Rings.

Adrien Lefevre is the author of these puzzles. The Lite version of Quaz-x has levels: 1, 2, 3, 7. Try it, you'll like it!